Assignment 16: Katie Chen

When I was kid, my friends and I liked to play pretend as Disney Princesses. At the beginning of the game, we would go around and pick which princess we wanted to be. Jenny wanted to be Cinderella because she was blonde and liked shoes, Brittany wanted to be Ariel because she liked to swim, and I wanted to be Snow White because animals liked her. But before I could say who I wanted to be, my friends turned to me and said “You can be Mulan”. Needless to say, these people are no longer my friends.

Now this wasn’t necessarily Jenny and Brittany’s fault, a large chunk of the blame does go to the princesses themselves. A study done by the Brigham Young University revealed how engaging with Disney princess culture could affect young children’s perception of the world around them. Today, we’ll discuss how Disney princesses perpetuate gender stereotypes, feed body image and self-esteem issues, and enforce racial stereotypes to young children.

When you ask most young girls what they want to dress up as for Halloween, their response is most likely something along the lines of “fairy” or “princess” or maybe even the word “glitter”. You rarely ever hear of a little girl saying she wants to dress up as Captain America or Iron Man. Why is this? BYU family life professor Sarah Coyne shows how Disney princesses can influence preschoolers to be more susceptible to potentially damaging stereotypes. She conducted a study in which 198 preschoolers were asked if they had interacted with Disney princess culture in any way. The study found that 96 percent of girls and 87 percent of boys had been exposed to Disney princess media. The assessment also included the children to rank their favorite toys, ranging from traditional “girl” toys (such as dolls and tea sets) all the way to traditional “boy” toys (such as action figures and nerf guns). For both boys and girls “more interactions with the princesses predicted more female gender-stereotypical behavior a year later.” Those that had more exposure to Disney princesses, consistently ranked the traditional “girl” toys at the top, solidifying this correlation between Disney and gender stereotypes.

The cause of this increase in gender stereotyping isn’t that obscure. We’re all familiar with the common fairy tale plot line: a pretty princess gets rescued by a Prince Charming who has slain the evil, ugly wicked witch. With clear archetypes such as the “damsel in distress” and the “evil villain” prevalent throughout childhood, traditional princess movies generally end in the girl needing to be saved by a man and them falling in love. Sounds pretty ridiculous if you ask me. Whatever happened to the strong, independent, badass women we see in our world every single day? Because of this lack of empowering female role models in the Disney universe, most young girls tend to lose their confidence as they get older.

Not only is this shortage of strong female characters causing self-confidence to plummet, but the impossible body standards of princesses also contribute to lower and lower body-esteem issues in young girls. In the Brigham Young study, it was found those who interacted most with Disney princesses showed worse self-esteem about their bodies as time went on. As women, we often hear of the “ideal thin” that’s seen in magazines and movies our whole lives. Some of the first exposure we get of this beauty standard is from Disney princesses themselves.

And it’s not just the incredibly small waistlines of the princesses that set the impossible standard for women- it’s the anatomically unattainable proportions. Artist Meredith Viguet created a series showing her audience how to illustrate Disney princess-esque characters. Viguet starts with the body type, in which the average body of a princess is “toothpick thin and waistless with feet that are absolutely tiny” in comparison with a regular woman’s figure. After bodies, she moves on to faces and starts with what she calls the “Sugar Cookie Style.” Most notable for the massive, bulbous eyes and full, womanly lips (regardless of one’s age), the “Sugar Cookie Style” produces a more child-like and feminine aura to the character.

Author Peggy Orenstein writes that an obsession with beauty and these impractical proportions increase girls’ “vulnerability to issues including eating disorders, depression, and risky sexual behavior.” The Barbie thin, perfectly proportioned, flawless, predominantly white characters often contribute to a harmful idea of beauty.

Which brings me to my next point, as a Disney fanatic throughout pretty much my entire childhood, I constantly tried to find a princess, or even just a character, who looked like me. You can imagine my disappointment when the only Asian character I could find was Mulan. So I really couldn’t blame Jenny and Brittany that much because there was only one option for me racially. I remember feeling upset and confused as to why there were mostly white princesses but only one Chinese princess. As of 2016, Disney named 11 official princesses, yet only 4 of them are non-white, with them emerging just in the past 30 years. Let’s put that into perspective. Founded in 1923, it took Disney 70 years to have its first non-white character appear in a film.  This absence of diversity among Disney characters only further enforces racial stereotypes at such a young age.

However, in the recent years, Disney has since improved from its age of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. We’re starting to see more strong, female characters rise up such as Merida and Tiana. The addition of Moana into the Disney clan not only increases Disney’s racial diversity, but the Disney body type as well. Unlike most princesses, Moana isn’t impossibly thin with demure, feminine shoulders, but rather athletic with strong, broad shoulders. She’s independent, fierce, and doesn't rely on a man to save her. As for exposing children to the world of Disney and everything that comes with it, researcher Alvin Poussant suggests “everything in moderation”. It’s only taken them 79 years, but Disney’s finally headed in the right direction and hopefully they will continue to do so.